The Internet, also referred to as an “internetwork”, is a set of computer networks, possibly dissimilar, joined together by means of gateways that handle data transfer and the conversion of messages from the sending network to the protocols used by the receiving network (with packets if necessary). When capitalized, the term “Internet” refers to the collection of networks and gateways that use the TCP/IP suite of protocols.
The Internet has become a cultural fixture as a source of both information and entertainment. Many businesses are creating Internet sites as an integral part of their marketing efforts, informing consumers of the products or services offered by the business or providing other information seeking to engender brand loyalty. Many federal, state, and local government agencies are also employing Internet sites for informational purposes, particularly agencies which must interact with virtually all segments of society such as the Internal Revenue Service and secretaries of state. Providing informational guides and/or searchable databases of online public records may reduce operating costs. Further, the Internet is becoming increasingly popular as a medium for commercial transactions.
Currently, the most commonly employed method of transferring data over the Internet is to employ the World Wide Web environment, also called simply “the Web”. Other Internet resources exist for transferring information, such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Gopher, but have not achieved the popularity of the Web. In the Web environment, servers and clients effect data transaction using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), a known protocol for handling the transfer of various data files (e.g., text, still graphic images, audio, motion video, etc.). The information in various data files is formatted for presentation to a user by a standard page description language, the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). In addition to basic presentation formatting, HTML allows developers to specify “links” to other Web resources identified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). A URL is a special syntax identifier defining a communications path to specific information. Each logical block of information accessible to a client, called a “page” or a “Web page”, is identified by a URL. The URL provides a universal, consistent method for finding and accessing this information, not necessarily for the user, but mostly for the user's Web “browser”. A browser is a program capable of submitting a request for information identified by an identifier, such as, for example, a URL. A user may enter a domain name through a graphical user interface (GUI) for the browser to access a source of content. The domain name is automatically converted to the Internet Protocol (IP) address by a domain name system (DNS), which is a service that translates the symbolic name entered by the user into an IP address by looking up the domain name in a database.
The Internet also is widely used to transfer applications to users using browsers. With respect to commerce on the Web, individual consumers and business use the Web to purchase various goods and services. In offering goods and services, some companies offer goods and services solely on the Web while others use the Web to extend their reach.
In on-line transactions over the Internet, the ideal on-line shopping situation provides a customer or user an ability to be anonymous. This situation is similar to the traditional brick-and-mortar store in which a person may enter the store, browse products, purchase a product with cash, and leave. In such a case, this type of store knows little or nothing about the customer's buying patterns. In this manner, the customer's privacy is protected. With on-line stores, it is very easy for these businesses to collect buying patterns of customers. The collection of this information may be facilitated through the use of cookies, universal resource locator rewriting, and hidden fields in dynamically generated HTML files. Many customers do not want to be identified and have their buying patterns associated with them for distribution to others.
In the current e-commerce world, such an anonymous shopping situation is impossible because it is very easy for on-line stores to identify individuals buying goods. The identification of an individual may be achieved by tracking down credit card information as well as mailing address information and a phone number for the user. In addition, giving out the mailing address or phone number typically invites unsolicited and annoying mailings, physical or e-mail, as well as telemarketing calls. Currently, it is difficult to prevent this type of identification and unsolicited activities from occurring because real personal information, such as credit card number, mailing address, and phone numbers, are required to be given and stored at an on-line store or business.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an improved method and apparatus for increasing the anonymity of on-line shopping.